
Fearless and Free
A Memoir
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Narrated by:
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Anam Zafar
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Sophie R. Lewis
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Ijeoma Oluo
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Jade Wheeler
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Quentin Bruno
About this listen
A MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK OF THE YEAR: The TODAY Show, Vanity Fair, Financial Times, W Magazine, Oprah Daily, LibraryReads
Praised as “funny and witty” by Kwame Alexander on the TODAY show, now published in the US for the first time, Fearless and Free is the memoir of the “trailblazing” (People), rule-breaking, one-of-a-kind Josephine Baker, the iconic dancer, singer, spy, and Civil Rights activist.
“A gorgeous, captivating gem of a memoir… Josephine Baker’s as enthralling on the page as she was on the stage.”—Abbott Kahler, New York Times bestselling author of Eden Undone and Sin in the Second City
After stealing the spotlight as a teenaged Broadway performer during the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Josephine then took Paris by storm, dazzling audiences across the Roaring Twenties. In her famous banana skirt, she enraptured royalty and countless fans—Ernest Hemingway and Pablo Picasso among them. She strolled the streets of Paris with her pet cheetah wearing a diamond collar. With her signature flapper bob and enthralling dance moves, she was one of the most recognizable women in the world.
When World War II broke out, Josephine became a decorated spy for the French Résistance. Her celebrity worked as her cover, as she hid spies in her entourage and secret messages in her costumes as she traveled. She later joined the Civil Rights movement in the US, boycotting segregated concert venues, and speaking at the March on Washington alongside Martin Luther King Jr.
First published in France in 1949, her memoir will now finally be published in English. At last we can hear Josephine in her own voice: charming, passionate, and brave. Her words are thrilling and intimate, like she’s talking with her friends over after-show drinks in her dressing room. Through her own telling, we come to know a woman who danced to the top of the world and left her unforgettable mark on it.
©2025 Originally published in French by Éditions Corrêa in France as Les Mémoires De Joséphine Baker by Marcel Sauvage, in 1949. Reissued in French by Éditions Phébus, in 2022. First English language edition simultaneously published with Vintage UK, a division of Penguin Random House Group, in 2025 Copyright © 2022 by Éditions Phébus / Libella, Paris. Translation copyright © 2025 by Anam Zafar and Sophie Lewis. Foreword copyright © 2025 by Ijeoma Oluo (P)2025 Penguin AudioListeners also enjoyed...
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Critic reviews
“Josephine Baker certainly shook things up. This memoir demonstrates—vividly—the pleasure she took in doing it.”—The Washington Post
“[A] trailblazing performer and activist’s book… Much of her work still resonates today.”—People
“This is Josephine Baker's story in her own words… Her voice is very strong in this story, and she is the best kind of person to read about. She is very funny and witty, humble and kind, and extremely eccentric.”—Kwame Alexander, TODAY
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- Unabridged
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Tracing a loose arc from Edwidge Danticat’s childhood to the COVID-19 pandemic and recent events in Haiti, the essays gathered in We’re Alone include personal narrative, reportage, and tributes to mentors and heroes such as Toni Morrison, Paule Marshall, Gabriel García Márquez, and James Baldwin that explore several abiding themes: environmental catastrophe, the traumas of colonialism, motherhood, and the complexities of resilience.
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Always a story to tell
- By TAE on 10-09-24
By: Edwidge Danticat
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The Great Mrs. Elias
- A Novel
- By: Barbara Chase Riboud
- Narrated by: Robin Miles
- Length: 15 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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A murder and a case of mistaken identity brings the police to Hannah Elias’ glitzy, five-story, twenty-room mansion on Central Park West. This is the beginning of an odyssey that moves back and forth in time and reveals the dangerous secrets of a mysterious woman, the fortune she built, and her precipitous fall.
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Inspirational! True telling of those that go unnoticed….until they’re not.
- By raven johnson on 04-15-25
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Purlie Victorious
- A Non-Confederate Romp Through the Cotton Patch
- By: Ossie Davis
- Narrated by: Leslie Odom Jr., Kara Young, Vanessa Bell Calloway, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 36 mins
- Original Recording
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Dynamic traveling preacher Purlie Victorious Judson returns to his small Georgia town hoping to save Big Bethel, the community’s church, and emancipate the cotton pickers who work on oppressive Ol’ Cap’n Cotchipee’s plantation. With the assistance of Lutiebelle Gussie Mae Jenkins, in a Tony Award-winning performance by Kara Young, Purlie hopes to pry loose an inheritance due his long-lost cousin and use the money to restore his beloved church.
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Stellar performances
- By Kamara Reads on 06-24-25
By: Ossie Davis
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Firstborn Girls
- A Memoir
- By: Bernice L. McFadden
- Narrated by: Robin Miles, Bernice L. McFadden
- Length: 12 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
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On her second birthday in 1967, Bernice McFadden died in a car crash near Detroit, only to be resuscitated after her mother pulled her from the flaming wreckage. Firstborn Girls traces her remarkable life from that moment up to the publication of her first novel, Sugar. Growing up in 1980s Brooklyn, Bernice finds solace in books, summer trips to Barbados, and boarding school to escape her alcoholic father. Discovering the works of Alice Walker and Toni Morrison, she finally sees herself and her loved ones reflected in their stories of “messy, beautiful, joyful Black people.”
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Great Read
- By Mia CB on 05-15-25
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The Sable Cloak
- By: Gail Milissa Grant
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton, Murphy Lorenzo Applin Jr
- Length: 9 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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Jordan Sable, a prosperous undertaker turned political boss, has controlled the Black vote in St. Louis for decades. Sara, his equally formidable wife, runs the renowned funeral establishment that put the Sable name on the map. Together they have pushed through obstacles in order to create a legacy for their children. When tragedy bursts their carefully constructed empire of dignity and safety, the family rallies around an unconventional solution. But at what cost?
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This was a beautiful story!
- By Ely B on 04-10-25
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Becoming Spectacular
- The Rhythm of Resilience from the First African American Rockette
- By: Jennifer Jones
- Narrated by: Chanté McCormick
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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The Radio City Rockettes are as American as baseball, hot dogs, and the Fourth of July. Their legendary synchronized leg kicks, precise lines, and megawatt smiles have charmed audiences for a century. But there is a hidden side to this illustrious national institution. Like Gelsey Kirkland’s iconic Dancing on My Grave, Becoming Spectacular allows us to walk in Jones’ tap shoes—beautiful and glittering, yet painful and binding. Bringing into focus the wounded life of a trailblazer, this searing memoir is also a triumphant celebration of a spirit who refused to be counted out.
By: Jennifer Jones
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The Fact Checker
- By: Austin Kelley
- Narrated by: Jacques Roy
- Length: 7 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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It started out like any other morning for the Fact Checker. The piece, “Mandeville/Green,” didn’t raise any red flags. There were more pressing stories that week—it being 2004 New York City and all. “Mandeville/Green” was a light, breezy look at a local farm called New Egypt, whose Ramapo tomatoes were quickly becoming the summer’s hottest produce. At first glance, the story seemed straightforward, but one line made the Fact Checker pause: a stray quote from a New Egypt volunteer named Sylvia making a cryptic reference to “nefarious business” at the farmer’s market.
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Awful
- By O on 06-14-25
By: Austin Kelley
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A More Perfect Party
- The Night Shirley Chisholm and Diahann Carroll Reshaped Politics
- By: Juanita Tolliver
- Narrated by: Juanita Tolliver
- Length: 6 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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In 1972, New York Representative Shirley Chisholm broke the ice in American politics when she became the first Black woman to run for president of the United States. Chisholm left behind a coalition-building model personified by a once-in-an-era Hollywood party hosted by legendary actress and singer Diahann Carroll, and attended by the likes of Huey P. Newton, Barbara Lee, Berry Gordy, David Frost, Flip Wilson, Goldie Hawn and others. In A More Perfect Party, MSNBC political analyst Juanita Tolliver presents a path to people-centered politics through the lens of this soiree.
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Shirley Chisholm and Diahann Carroll
- By SAOT66 on 01-15-25
By: Juanita Tolliver
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Mainline Mama
- A Memoir
- By: Keeonna Harris
- Narrated by: Bahni Turpin
- Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
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Keeonna and Jason met as young teens. Only fourteen, Keeonna had never had a boyfriend before, dreamed of attending Spelman to become an obstetrician, and thought she was “grown.” Within a year she was pregnant and Jason was in prison, convicted of a carjacking and sentenced to twenty-two years. Overnight Keeonna had become a “mainline mama,” a parent facing the task of raising a child—while still growing up herself—with an incarcerated partner.
By: Keeonna Harris
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A Right Worthy Woman
- A Novel
- By: Ruth P. Watson
- Narrated by: Janina Edwards
- Length: 8 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
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Maggie Lena Walker was ambitious and unafraid. Her childhood in 19th-century Virginia helping her mother with her laundry service opened her eyes to the overwhelming discrepancy between the Black residents and her mother’s affluent white clients. She vowed to not only secure the same kind of home and finery for herself, but she would also help others in her community achieve the same.
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She Was Formidable!
- By Sonya on 07-18-23
By: Ruth P. Watson
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I Did a New Thing
- 30 Days to Living Free
- By: Tabitha Brown
- Narrated by: Tabitha Brown
- Length: 4 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Years ago, Tabitha Brown started a 30-day personal challenge that she called “I Did a New Thing!” The challenge was simple. Every day she would do something she’d never done before. Sometimes it was something small like trying a new food. Other times, she’d step it up a bit and speak to someone she’d never spoken to before. Still other times, she’d do the hard thing—facing a fear that she had, like having that tough conversation with a friend. No matter what it was, the point was that she was going to take a leap of faith and watch God open up a new lane for her.
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Very Good
- By Jennifer Pete on 02-07-24
By: Tabitha Brown
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Let Us March On
- A Novel
- By: Shara Moon
- Narrated by: Karen Chilton
- Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins
- Unabridged
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When Lizzie McDuffie, maid to Eleanor and Franklin D. Roosevelt, boldly proclaimed herself FDR’s “Secretary-On-Colored-People’s-Affairs,” she became more than just a maid—she became the President’s eyes and ears into the Black community. After joining the White House to work alongside her husband, FDR’s personal valet, Lizzie managed to become completely indispensable to the Roosevelt family. Never shy about pointing out injustices, she advocated for the needs and rights of her fellow African Americans when those in the White House blocked access to the President.
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What 1 person can do to make a difference
- By Ilene M. Vinikoor on 03-01-25
By: Shara Moon
Extraordinary lady
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A much appreciated peek into the mind of Josephine Baker
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Oh la la!
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Revealed another side
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Not a biography
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A incongruous mess
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